Azula and The Tin Box
by MorningSuns
Summary: AU. My version of "The Princess And The Tin Box: A Fable For Our Time" by James Thurber. I suck at summaries. Please R&R!


**A/N: Hello, it's been a while since I last wrote/ updated a story, so to make up for it, I wrote this. I was sitting in my English class, taking a midterm exam, when I read a similar story called "The Princess And The Tin Box: A Fable For Our Time" by James Thurber. It kinda reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender for some reason, which inspired me to write this. I changed the story and incorporated it into this. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor do I own "The Princess And The Tin Box: A Fable For Our Time" by James Thurber. I know this wasn't my idea, so don't sue me. If you are, then I have an amazing lawyer (he's my uncle) :P**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Once upon a time, in an alternate universe, there lived a king, named Ozai, whose daughter was the prettiest princess in the world. Her eyes were like topaz, her hair was sweeter than the flowers that grew in the spring, and her hair made the swan look dirty.<p>

From the time she was a year old, the princess, named Azula, had been showered with presents. Her toys were all made of gold or platinum or diamonds or emeralds. She was not permitted to have wooden blocks or china dolls, because those materials were considered cheap for the daughter of a king.

When she was seven, she attended her brother's wedding, and threw real pearls at the bride instead of rice. Only the nightingale, with his lyre of gold, was permitted to sing for the princess. The common blackbird, with his boxwood flute, was kept out of the palace grounds. She walked in silver slippers to a sapphire-and-topaz bathroom and slept in an ivory, silk bed made of rubies.

On the day the princess was sixteen, Ozai announced that he would give his daughter's hand in marriage to the prince who brought her the gift she liked the most.

The first prince to arrive at the palace was named Haru and presented the princess an enormous apple made of solid gold which he had taken from a dragon who had guarded it for a thousand years. It was placed on a long table, set up to hold the gifts of the princess's suitors. The second prince, who's name was Sashuki, brought her a nightingale made of a thousand diamonds, and it was placed beside the golden apple. The third prince, named Sokka, brought a jewel box made of platinum and sapphires, and it was placed next to the diamond nightingale.

The fourth prince, named Jet, gave the princess a gigantic heart made of rubies and was pierced by an emerald arrow. It was placed next to the platinum-and-sapphire jewel box. Now the fifth prince was the strongest and handsomest of all the five suitors, but he was the son of a poor king whole realm had been overrun by mice and mining engineers so that there was nothing much of value left in it. He came plodding up to the palace of the princess on a plow horse and he brought her a small tin box filled with mica and feldspar and hornblende **(A/N: For those of you who don't know what these are, they are types of rocks)** , which he had picked up on the way.

The other princes laughed when they saw the gift the fifth prince had brought to the princess. But she examined it with great interest and squealed with delight, for all her life she had never seen tin before or mica or feldspar or hornblende. The tin box was placed next to the ruby heart pierced with an emerald arrow.

"Now," Ozai said to his daughter, "you must select the gift you like best and marry the prince that brought it."

Azula smiled and walked up to the table and picked up the present she liked the most. It was the platinum-and-sapphire jewel box, the gift of the third prince.

"The way I figure it," she said, "is this. It is a very large and expensive box, and when I am married, I will meet many admirers who will give me precious gems with which to fill it to the top. Therefore, it is the most valuable of all the gifts my suitors have brought me and I like it the best."

Azula married the third prince that very day. More than a hundred thousand pearls were thrown at her, and she loved it.

_**Moral: All those who thought the princess was going to select the tin box filled with worthless stones instead of one of the other gifts will kindly stay after class and write one hundred times on the blackboard "I would rather have a hunk of aluminum silicate than a diamond necklace."**_

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><p><em><strong>AN: Well? Review? Again, not my idea, I just simply changed some things. Please thank James Thurber for the original piece, not me(: Thanks for reading!**_


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